Octopus Blogs

A few days ago I saw a short film on the TV. The story revolved around a girl who had been through all kinds of problems in life, tortured by everyone around her and struggled to survive, until one day she made it. She proved herself, got everything in life, helped others around her and was happy. But was she REALLY happy though? Was the purpose of her life fulfilled though? Apparently not. Right before the story ended they added a new character. This character was a strong,successful man who was in all ways perfect for the girl. Now as perfect and happy as the ending was, it led me to think , is a woman's story never complete without a man being in it ? Does a hero always have to be necessary to make her story complete? For once, can't a woman be her own hero? The answer is no. Not where we live. We can't even make a movie with a female alone being a role model, let alone see it happen in real life. Before everyone starts throwing famous quotes and religious v

My 80+ year old granddad is one busy man. You'll always see him reading newspapers and writing journals and notes and GOD knows what. But if you talk to him, you'll realize he knows more than he shows.  Wise old people always suggest you to read. Books. Newspapers. Novels. There's no specific category. To just read.  I've always been a book reader myself and I've always considered it an individual hobby, never really thought about why I do it and what benefits it will bring me in the long term. But as I grew older I realized a lot of advantages I got from something I just enjoyed doing. I'm going to share some with you.  Escape from reality Reading a good book can quickly ,and completely, deviate your mind from whatever is going on around you. When you get too many reality checks a day and you feel overwhelmed by life itself, a book is a beautiful and quick escape.   Also, depending on what kind of book you're reading, your mood change

Last night , I was watching this movie called Brain on fire , starring Chloe Grace Mortez. The movie was based on a story of a 21 year old girl ,Susanna, living her dream life, working her dream job , having a perfectly imperfect life , when one day her life turns around. She starts experiencing and showing signs and symptoms that no doctor she goes to, has the diagnoses for. She starts losing herself . The doctors around her fail to figure out what's wrong with her and start suggesting alcoholism , drug abuse and psychiatric problems and insist to move her to the psychiatric hospital because they didn't want to deal with it any more. Soon, an amazing doctor shows up and saves her life. She basically had an autoimmune disease that was fortunately treatable and all was good at the end but it made me wonder. I wondered how many people were thrown into the psychiatric wards just because doctors couldn't diagnose them. I wondered how many people were labelled with menta

It's my birthday ! And every year I get the exact same questions : "what's the big deal ? " , "Aren't you a little too grown up to be excited about it ?", "Doesn't it come every year? It's just a regular day." Yes it is. I agree. But what makes me genuinely happy about this day is that somehow my birthday brings a lot of things to my attention - What my past year has been like and what the coming year will bring; the memories I made, the friends I made, what I gained and what I lost. Every year finishes with some good memories and some disappointments but at the end , there's a lesson that I get from everything. And that , I think , is key to growth.  It's just a regular day if all that's growing is your hair, jameela ! What makes this day special is realizing how much you've grown mentally. Every year comes and goes and what stays are the lessons it gives you. So this year , I'm going to list them down.  Lesson

It's not a surprise that the harmful effects of using a cell phone have been in question for a while now. Mass studies have been and are being done to conclude whether or not we keep slow poisons in our pockets all day.  Studies done back in 2010 and 11 had dismissed any such rumors but the researches done later in 2012 and 14 had some results that brought back the concerns. It was feared that prolonged usage of WiFi ,and cell phones in general, had a great impact on one's health. Increased incidents of brain cancers and tumors as gliomas and acoustic neuromas were a huge matter of concern.  The gradually progressing cases of child cancer being reported and the increasing developments of individual child cancer wards and hospitals have brought back the horrors to the attention of science researchers. Does this have anything to do with the children's continuous exposure to cell phone radiations ? Unfortunately, the studies have been inconclusive and unreliable becaus

A migraine ,for me, is one of the worst types of pain you can ever experience. It's a nightmare and the worst part is, it doesn't go away as fast as a nightmare would. I've had episodic migraines for a long period of my life and I can finally say that I've had my fair share of experience to be able to write about it. There is a considerably growing percentage of people ,mostly teens and adolescents , with migraines and I'm sure most of you have experienced at least one in your lifetime. It gets pretty hard to deal with especially if you have no clue of whats happening to you and what you can do to help yourself. I will share with you what I've experienced so far and how I manage my migraines and hope that something from my experiences will help you with yours.  What are migraines Medically defining , a migraine is a recurrent throbbing headache that typically affects one side of the head and is often accompanied by nausea and disturbed vision, so says Sir

Life with anxiety means being scared all the time. And not knowing why. It means a constant state of fear and panic and losing control over your mind and body. Not knowing what's happening and trying to figure it out only to fail. It means not knowing what's wrong with you and it means people telling you there's nothing wrong with you. But you know there is. Only you know it. Life with anxiety means unfocused, unorganized, bamboozled mind and a confused , hyperactive, panicked body trying to settle each other down only to make each other worse. It means not being able to concentrate or carry on with your daily life. Studying, working, cleaning or even hanging out with friends and family becomes impossible. Sitting with them and still not being present. Not being able to listen , not being able to focus on what everybody is saying or doing around you. Sometimes it means quitting on life and closing the curtains and isolating yourself. Life with anxiety means sleeple

Procrastination is a CURSE, I tell you. It's the devil whispering sweet things to you . It's like smoking. You know you're going to regret it . But you do it anyways because you're so addicted to how good it feels.  What is procrastination ? Google says it is the action of delaying or postponing something. I say, it is the ability to make the most ridiculous excuses at the most critical times for the most basic ,and possibly the most important, tasks. If you are a procrastinating genie ,like myself, you probably have a an assignment , a pile of paperwork and a rack of books to sort and an entire section of your room awaiting your attention , for the last 2 months.  Procrastination is not easy. It takes a lot of creativity and shamelessness to avoid your inner voice calling you out multiple times a day and being as DHEET as you could be. Ask me , I'm a professional. With a PhD. Not exaggerating.  Why is it a problem ? Living with procrastinatio

Fruit for thought... Every now and then my parents tell me stories about their childhoods. How things used to be so different back then. How there was no such thing as a WiFi or even the concept of something called "Internet" . How making a call to a person in the other city needed a "reservation' and a man who made the call possible by connecting the two telephone lines and had the authority to listen to everything you say during the call - while secretly laughing and judging you in the mean time . Technology started advancing and having a television in the house was a luxury only some could afford. And only one in 10 or 20 houses had it. But the ones that did, had their doors open for everyone to come and watch. Desktop computers were a symbol of leisure. Owning a telephone connection was something people would grin about with pride and satisfaction . I listen to these stories and I read them everywhere from older authors comparing their then and now

Most of us night owls face the never ending struggle of waking up in the morning. Having sleep issues since a very young age I had convinced myself that I will be a night worker my entire life. I would study , work and do all kinds of stuff at night because I used to be wide awake and so full of energy. Pulling all nighters was not even a big deal for me. One important thing that really helped me change this and get out of bed in the morning was a morning routine.  When you wake up every morning feeling in control and knowing how your day is going to start, it makes it less of a struggle. A morning routine sets a tone for the whole day. Setting yourself up for the day is probably the biggest challenge . A routine makes you feel organized and less overwhelmed by the day ahead.  Now that we've established the importance of a morning routine, let's talk about what a morning routine should generally consist of :  Consistency Try to make the first hour of y

Why the youth is frustrated Let's take a moment and think about something. When a country's crime rate goes high, who are the criminals ? It can't be the old folks , right ? I mean most of them can barely get to the grocery store let alone robbing  or shooting a pedestrian. And it''s certainly not the children either. More than 50% of the criminals out there are YOUNG people. The YOUTH. When asked and interviewed, it turned out that most of these youngsters were either told to commit the crimes or were themselves responsible for their actions. So the question is this : Why does a young person decide to take the risk of destroying their whole life spending it behind bars , at an age at which they should be the most positive about life and looking for opportunities to make their world a better place ?  The answer is simple. They are frustrated. The fire that was supposed to make them energetic towards life is now burning it down. Speaking as a part

A small study guide for the beginners out there Proffs are coming up and I'm sure everyone who's ever given medical exams KNOWS that this is the worst part of the year for us. There's just a lot of stress in the air and if we could , we would just snap our fingers to fast forward and skip the whole dang month to the end ! Agreed ? It's my fourth time dealing with this epidemic and I thought I'd share some of my little tips and tricks that have helped me overcome this mess every single year. Number 1 : Start easy Try to start with the easiest and the smallest topics, because: They're not scary to look at so it wont be as repelling.  It'll get you into the flow of studying  Completing every small topic will subconsciously give you a sense of achievement and motivate you to move forward with a feeling that you got this ! Number 2 : Study Effectively, not Endlessly  If you believe that sitting down with a book in front of you and cra

It's importance and why nobody talks about it.  Last I checked, the most common and the most under-rated medical issue of our generation was Mental Health . Shocking, I know. But if you think about it , it's actually not that surprising. Why ? Because when there's an epidemic, a viral infection going on or even just a change in the weather, everyone talks about it, they figure out a solution and it gets better. Well, mostly it does. But the only way to solve an issue is to realize its consequences and discussing it and working on it , right? If you're not going to talk about something, obviously it's not going to go away. Now I'm not saying that NOBODY talks about it. Thankfully media has contributed a lot in spreading awareness and bringing this issue into the light for people but I'm talking about the shadows. The people away from the light. I'm talking about our homes and schools and institutes- the general public. It's nearly 2019